Gilroy: Pot seized, man arrested in drug squad’s second bust of the year

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More than $600,000 worth of marijuana, both processed and plants, was found Thursday at a single-family home in Gilroy that was found to be largely converted into a marijuana growing operation. One man was arrested. It was the Santa Clara County sheriff’s Marijuana Enforcement Team’s second raid this year.

GILROY — A man was arrested and more than $600,000 worth of marijuana seized at a home largely converted into a pot farm in the second bust of the year for the sheriff’s drug squad.

On Thursday, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Enforcement Team served a warrant at a single-family residence on Apache Court, a neighborhood near Sunrise Park. Agents found 70 pounds of processed marijuana and 468 plants, with an estimated street value of $608,000. They also found 32-year-old Tri Tran, who was arrested without incident and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of unlawful marijuana cultivation, possession of marijuana for sale and theft of utilities.

Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Jose Cardoza said electrical work had been done in an effort to bypass the power meter.

“They want to maximize power,” he said. “Obviously it takes a significant amount of energy for an indoor marijuana grow for the fans, lighting and other equipment and they want to use a lot of power without alerting the power companies too much.”

He said the bust was the result of information gathered by investigators but declined to elaborate.

In January, a tip led authorities to more than $700,000 worth of marijuana at a pair of San Jose grow houses, also rigged to steal electricity.

Cardoza said the county’s marijuana squad usually works on tracking down outdoor operations in rural areas during the grow season from spring to early winter and focuses on in-house crops in the off months.

Last year, the team removed more than 91,000 plants and 500 pounds of marijuana from grow operations, 22 of which were outdoors and seven indoors. They made 21 arrests and confiscated nine guns.

Eric Kurhi is a reporter for the Bay Area News Group based at The Mercury News. He covers Santa Clara County government and general assignment duties. An East Bay native, he has been editing and reporting at local newspapers since graduating from San Francisco State University in 1997.

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